Record. xlv 



which he visited, yielded rich material for the study, both of 

 individual species and of their areas of distribution. At Niagara 

 he enjoyed a keen delight in seeing a living lepidosteus (gar pike) 

 move its head without bending its vertebral axis. In 1848 

 he conducted a scientific expedition along the then unexplored 

 northern shore of Lake Superior. In 1853, he made a trip from 

 Charleston to Mobile and along the Gulf of Mexico to New 

 Orleans and up the Mississippi River. In 1864, he made im- 

 portant geological field observations in Maine. In 1868, he 

 accompanied a party of members of Congress and others over 

 the eastern branch of the Pacific (now Kansas Pacific) Railroad, 

 crossing by ambulance to the Union Pacific Railroad, and 

 following it westward to its then terminus at Green River, near 

 the western boundary of Wyoming. 



The last year of Agassiz's life was marked by the realization of 

 a plan for a summer school of natural history for training 

 teachers in laboratory methods. The unsolicited gift of Penikese 

 island, near the entrance to Buzzard's Bay, together with a 

 donation of S50,000 in money, by Mr. John Anderson, of New 

 York, made it possible to erect a special building for dormitories 

 and work-rooms, in which the school was opened, July 8, 1873, 

 and kept up during the summer. Agassiz was the life and soul 

 of the school, meeting the students generally twice a day, in the 

 main lecture-room. "In the morning session he would prepare 

 his class for the work of the day ; in the afternoon he would draw 

 out their own observations by questions, and lead them, by 

 comparison and combination of the facts they had observed, to 

 understand the significance of their results. Every lecture 

 . . . was a lesson in teaching, as well as in natural history."* 

 As a great object-lesson in methods of teaching natural history 

 the school was a signal success. ''Summer schools for advanced 

 students, and especially for teachers, have taken their place in 

 the general system of education; and, though the Penikese 

 school may be said to have died with its master, it lives anew 

 in many a seaside laboratory organized on the same plan, in 

 summer schools of Botany, and field classes of Geology. The 

 impetus it gave was not, and cannot be, lost, since it refreshed 

 and vitalized methods of teaching."! 



Agassiz declined many calls to official positions of high, and 

 even of the highest, rank. Within a month after entering on his 



* Memoir, by Elizabeth Gary Agassiz, pp. 774-75. 

 t Ibid. p. 772. 



